Gordon_M

On second look you are right Richard, clockwise looking at the undriven end of the crank? There was the early Weasel which had the same engine at the back, driving forward into a transaxle at the front, which was why I asked. Degsy - check the manual please - might still be that the Weasel has / needs a six-bladed fan and you have the four blade unit from a car. Gordon

You might want to have a scan of the manual. I'm not 100% but that looks like a reverse-flow fan you have in one of the pics, and I'm reasonably sure the Weasel should draw air from the front and pump it out the back - may be wrong though.... Might be from an early machine with the same engine at the back ? T-28 or whatever I remember my DUKW drew air forward over the engine, but I'm sure my Weasels drew it in at the front. My Snow Tractor and Sno-Cat have conventional fans on. Gordon

You need to speak to Rex Ward - there are variations. I vaguely remember the chassis transit pieces were introduced for the DUKW where you could fit them and then all the hose work could be done outside the hull. There are longer and shorter hoses, hose protectors - as I said, a few variants.

Since you can buy just about any part of a Weapon Carrier, and lots of good repro stuff is available from the like of Midwest Military, there are no showstoppers when looking for one to buy. In general, though, completeness. You don't really want a cab and chassis, so if it doesn't have the correct intact body, move on. It is nice, though not essential, to have the correct engine code - T202, T207, T211, T215, T214, or T223. Canvas and tyres can be expensive, so if you were choosing between two otherwise similar trucks the one with the best canvas and tyres would save you some money. Personally I would always buy a winch truck, rather than a plain front, but I'm sure others here would have exactly the opposite opinion. Final thought - when looking for a Weapon Carrier, you might run across a good deal on another Dodge - Command Car, Carryall, Ambulance, Maintenance or Telephone truck - give them due consideration. A Command Car or Carryall will always sell for more money than a Weapon Carrier, but again if you buy either of those completeness is even more important as parts - original or reproduction - are rarer and more expensive.

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=206594 In case it is of use to you. Gordon

Well we get about, don"t we. Picture of the beast?

Hello Gareth, friendly bunch here

Yes the radio mount kit will be pretty much identical, half to three-quarter. You can tell that is a WC53 by the shape of the rear inner wings / fenders, and the two cutout plates in the wooden floor that cover where the chassis kicks up. ( the body sat higher on the half ton chassis, and was dropped 3 or 4 inches on the WC 53 ) There are a pile of tricks to putting that floor in - I learned them all the hard way, same with the ordinary panel roof ( WC 42 roof is metal ) If you are looking for Carryall and van info, have a leaf through this page; http://www.gwim2.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gordons_vehicle_home.htm G

Nicks avatar image is a half ton panel. The Carryall interior image is a WC53 3/4 ton

Well I think any contemporary British radio would be 'right' then. I'm reworking a pair of back doors for my WD21 panel at the minute, and it's no fun getting the fit right. I remember picking up one WC42 from Crieff and taking it back to Denny, on it's way to Willie Lindsay in New Cumnock, and then to Manchester in bits. Apart from the cut body the only real problem with it was the sump was off - probably big ends. The other one came from where - somewhere in the Scottish borders? I remember the rear diff had been wrecked. This was pre-internet and we didn't know how rare the Crieff one was.

The '34 looks like it might be a Dodge KH series 1.5 ton 4 x 2. I just happen to know someone in Texas who has a very good KH military dump truck project for sale, but only to the right person as so many people are rodding these things. Gordon

Hmm, railway use, for traffic signalling? It could be carried about and just plugged in at any convenient location on a track.

I've seen that van before, it's looking better now, for sure. I can't remember if parts of either of the Scottish ones ended up in that one though. Radios ? As far as I know they came with radio tables and battery cages, plus the ventilator fan, but since they were made specifically for us they would probably have been outfitted with whatever the standard range of British radios was in 1942-ish. There were probably different configurations, low and high power, different frequencies, etc. I've seen some shots of the inside of the Chevrolet 1.5 ton panel radio and it was incredibly cramped. I'd guess the WC42 wasn't much better. I'm sure one or two of them were left in the US as well as I heard of a couple there and I'm sure they would never have been sent back there from the UK. Doesn't one of the manuals have a shot of the interior showing tables and battery cages at least? Sure I've seen that somewhere.

Carrying case for a lead / acid cell, maybe, something like that, with brass strips to be contacts and the zinc grille to allow hydrogen to escape when charged ?

Who said & name the series........"I got my beady eye on you" ? I would have said Fulton MacKay to Ronnie Barker in Porridge myself :angel: but then I suppose there is no "Fletcher' on the end.

You get points for identification, tried this on the ATHS page My guess is that it is a Pacific M26 with a Fruehauf M15 trailer, Whites M2 halftrack, which at nine ton is near the ten ton weight limit of the Bay City 18T-50 crane

Yes, new tanks are probably the answer. I did wonder about the aluminium 'welding' process someone here pointed me at to joint up the sheet metal on the Snow Tractor roof. http://durafix.co.uk/ This is some sort of low temperature alloy which will fuse with the aluminium and might be just the ticket. I vaguely remember that the tanks were severely pitted, but in relatively small areas? Of course the difficulty there might be getting your original repair epoxy out cleanly.

That's good news, I never did fancy cranking over something by hand, even at low compression. There can't be that much still to do on the Dennis, surely? I remember the radiator tanks were still a little suspect. Gordon

I had a really good starting system for my 6v GMC stuff. If it had been sitting for any length of time, I'd open the bonnet and squirt about 1 cubic inch of petrol from a squeezy bottle onto the centre of the air cleaner, where the butterfly nut is. That would drain down and any of my GMC stuff would generally fire up first kick with about half choke, as the petrol in the bottle had fired it off far enough to get the fuel up and the carb full before it ran out. My DUKW had the extra panel on the side of the dash with the knockout plug that was designed to accommodate the hand primer ( same one that was fitted to all Weasels ) That was a simple brass pump that sucked in from the fuel line inlet and squirted out through nozzles into each main brach of the inlet manifold. If your battery, carb, fuel line, and electrics are good, terminals clean and tight, then a 6v system will generally fire up. The one notable exception is where it has been repeatedly jumped with 12v.

Very nice Bart, lot of work there.

Maybe one of those rubber rings they use on exhaust hangers, scarf cut to get the right diameter?

Could be as simple as tarry rope, for that temperature :angel: Sort of material you'd use for a crankshaft oil seal

The cups, roller needles, and joint crosses all have wear surfaces - yours are probably just well worn. If it is really bad just change the joint, if not a heavy duty grease ( water pump fibrous grease maybe ? ) or strip and replace the roller needles might do it.

Take out the clamp bolt and check the length versus the hole depth. I'll bet somebody lost the original bolt and replaced it with one just a hair longer, so it is bottoming out before it clamps

Morning Peter, I've lost track of where the family is with the WK60 too - in progress? moved on to someone? I've got four unfinished Dodges in the garage and the Snow Tractor, so I know how these things move and stop ... Gordon